1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network system including a management server system that manages a plurality of devices registered in tenant units and a device management agent that relays the devices and the management server system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been proposed device management services that register a device such as a peripheral device or a printer, manage the registered peripheral device via a network, and provide services. Some device management services are used by a service provider (device management service provider) to manage devices of a plurality of customers (individual people and companies). Such device management services secure a data region for each customer and register and manage devices for each customer.
There have been proposed systems in which a server for providing a device management service is disposed in the cloud of Internet. In such systems, a device management agent is disposed in a customer network environment or a device management agent function is implemented in a device so as to enable a relay between the device management server and the device. For example, the device management service and the device management agent communicate with the device management server via HTTP/HTTPS or the like. The device management agent communicates with the device management server, receives work instructions, and transmits device information.
The device management agent is managed in association with a customer which is managed by the device management server. The device management agent receives an authentication key for the device management agent upon registration processing for registering a device into the device management server, and uses the authentication key for authentication when communicating with the device management server. In the device management server, the device management agent authentication key is managed for each customer and is managed in a data region for each customer.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-99741 discloses a document management server that associates each of devices and documents with a group to which each of the devices and documents belongs and manages them so as to restrict the devices which are capable of outputting the documents. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-54633 discloses a system which associates IP addresses of a plurality of terminals such as mobile phones, PDAs, PCs, automobiles, and the like with user identification information and manages them so as to enable a terminal switching operation by information synchronization via Internet.
In the device management services described above, two or more customers may be integrated into one customer due to an integration of customer companies or the like. In this case, device management information managed by the device management agent which is the transition source needs to be transitioned from a transition source customer to a transition destination customer and the device management agent needs to be redisposed/reset. For example, in order to register the device management agent into the transition destination customer, software for the device management agent needs to be reinstalled so as to perform a re-registration operation for the transition destination customer. Thus, a service provider SE needs to visit a customer company to perform an operation.
Upon transition of the device management agent between customers, the device management agent authentication key held by the device management agent needs to be newly issued so as to safely realize a key exchange between the transition destination customer and the device management agent.